Study: Only 25 percent of U.S. adults have used VR but retention is high

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Study: Only 25 percent of U.S. adults have used VR but retention is high
I’ve often said that the XR industry needs more exposure so people can realize what it has to offer. A new study from Thrive Analytics (a research and consulting firm) and ARtillery Intelligence (a spatial computing research and analyst firm) corroborates my claims. Apparently, only 25% of adults in the U.S. have ever experienced Virtual Reality.

Of these 25% of consumers, 80% of them engage in VR experiences at least once a month. This shows that once someone has experienced Virtual Reality, they’re much more likely to keep coming back for more.

On the other hand, from the 75% of consumers who have never experienced VR, only 26% reported wanting to give it a try. So it seems to me that those who have never tried VR don’t grasp how amazing it can be. And thus probably feel like it’s a fad that will die out like 3D TVs.

This is where all of Meta’s recent efforts to popularize the XR industry come in.


— Mike Boland, VR Usage & Consumer Attitudes (subscription required), May 2024

Meta recently made its Quest OS platform open-source. This allows more manufacturers to jump in with XR products of their own. Asus and Lenovo are already working on headsets that will run on the rebranded Horizon OS.

Meta is also working on Project Nazare: a pair of AR glasses that the company claims is as revolutionary as the first Oculus Rift. And lastly, Meta continues to sell its headsets at prices that fail to turn a profit for the company’s XR division. The strategy here being mass adoption of XR and setting Meta up as the go-to XR provider.


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Meta Quest 3 is one of the best VR headsets on the market today.

Reality Labs, Meta’s division that handles Quest headsets and other XR services, recently had a promising Q1 earnings report for Quest revenue. I hope this means that Meta’s strategy is working and the XR industry will see growth in the next decade.

And if you’re one of those people who’s yet to try VR, what are you waiting for? There’s amazing VR games to be played and awesome VR headsets for them to be played on.
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